


sufficient unto the day

by godbinder



Category: Scholomance - Naomi Novik
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Orion Lake: Resident Himbo, Post-Canon, Post-Scholomance, why is it so hard for orion lake to get a date
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:28:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27585452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/godbinder/pseuds/godbinder
Summary: He hadn’t kissed her before they went into the graduation hall, and it hadn’t occurred to him that he wouldn’t be able to kiss her when they got out of it, because she’d be on the other side of the ocean.
Relationships: Galadriel "El" Higgins & Orion Lake, Galadriel "El" Higgins/Orion Lake
Comments: 39
Kudos: 166





	sufficient unto the day

“You didn’t bring in any alliances with you,” his mom said, pouring them both coffee. 

He shrugged. “Chloe and Magnus were doing that.”

Chloe and Magnus had run everything their senior year. They’d asked him about things, sometimes, but it had never been anything more than a courtesy. He’d never been good with groups of people, had never understood or cared about enclave politics. By that point it had become very clear that El was his friend, his first friend, and the only one who didn’t care he was from New York or who his mom was. He wouldn’t have put it past her to deduct points for either of those things, either. 

“No one caught your eye?” she asked, picking up her mug and watching him pour hollandaise on his Eggs Benedict. 

“Hm,” he said around a bite with a shrug. “I mean, El didn’t want to join an enclave, and Liu’s family will build their own, probably. Aadyha would join up, I think, but they were already in an alliance and she wasn’t going to leave them.”

“They sound like interesting girls.”

“They’re my friends.”

Mom stopped mid-sip at that. “Your friends?”

He swallowed a too big bite of fruit—God, fresh whipped cream and strawberries, it was so good he could actually be sick—and drank some juice. His mom looked a little damp, biting her lip. 

“Yeah,” he said, his voice rough. “My friends.”

“Were they alchemists too?”

He shakes his head. “Liu and El were incantations track, and Aadyha is an artificer.”

“Hm, well, we could always use artificers,” his mom says, pulling a bowl of cut fruit closer. “Maybe after she has some experience under her belt.”

Orion didn’t know what that meant. What exactly were the last four years if not a crash course in experience. “No, Aadyha’s not—not just book good, she’s actually good. She made a sirenspider lute for graduation, it was brilliant. You’ve never heard anything like it.” When he thought about it he could almost feel the stroke of the notes reverberating over his skin. “She can take anything from a mal and make something. And,” he added, “she was the biggest trader on our floor—she has connections with pretty much everyone who went through our years.”

Knowing who survived and who went to which enclave—he knew that was valuable information. He thought Chloe and Magnus were being interrogated about it right now. The only reason his mom didn’t try is because, well, there were no flashcards to put faces to their names in the Scholomance.

“Her name is Aadyha?” His mother put her coffee down and sitting forward in her chair. 

He nodded. He couldn’t recall a last name. Had he ever heard her last name? Probably. He could see El rolling her eyes at him. You haven’t bothered to learn anyone’s names, have you? 

“She’s from, Jersey?” He was talking with food in his mouth, but it was the first time his meal wasn’t even almost trying to kill him in years, he could barely stop to breathe. Everything tasted so good.

He wondered what El had walked into, if her mom had a big meal planned, just the two of them, or if El had been dragged out into the woods for one of those cleanses she’d talked about hating but always seemed nostalgic for. He hadn’t kissed her before they went into the graduation hall, and it hadn’t occurred to him that he wouldn’t be able to kiss her when they got out of it, because she’d be on the other side of the ocean. 

“I can’t wait to meet her,” his mom was saying. 

“El?” No, that wouldn’t go well at all, that really shouldn’t happen. 

“Aadyha,” she said, like he had missed the point, which, maybe he had, the Eggs Benedict was really good. “You should bring her around. We’re working on a project in the lower levels tat could use more artificers, your father’s been complaining about the lack of extra hands. He was hoping you’d be able to help.” 

“Oh, sure.” He swallowed a bite too big and said, “I mean, not right now.” 

His mom picked up her coffee again, “No, not right now. I think you’ve earned a little time off, you worked so hard in there.” 

It hadn’t really felt that hard. Or rather, it had, until he’d learned what El and the other students had to do to survive. Then he realized—he had it easy. Beyond easy. “I’m gonna go out today,” he added. 

“Of course, go to the park, see something green. You should take Chloe, you could all use a little sun.”

He wasn’t dumb. He knew El thought he was, mainly because his mind didn’t move as fast as hers, or as cynically, but he wasn’t dumb. He knew if he told his mom or his dad or anyone that he was leaving New York and not coming back—well, he didn’t know what they’d do. His mom wouldn’t throw him in prison, they didn’t even have a prison, but they’d probably ward him in his room until they could make him see reason.

But now that he was here, he saw all the cracks in the foundation that he’d never noticed when he was younger. The maintenance crews running ragged on patch jobs, the sorcerers who line up to take contracts from the governing committee, desperate to earn their way in or their children’s way in. It wasn’t fair that he was just—born here. 

Anyway, he couldn’t do anything about New York, he was only eighteen and more than that, his mom was in charge and she still thought of him as a kid who needed flashcards to make friends. And maybe he was, but he knew it was wrong. For God’s sake, Todd was still in the enclave, as far as Orion could tell, he hadn’t even gotten a slap on his wrist, who cared about a loser kid with no enclave behind him to challenge them over it?

It made him hate them, and himself, more than just a little. 

So, he’d find El, and hopefully figure out how to live with it later or else—never come home. Which was—morbid. Also, unlikely. So, learn to live with it, or something like it. 

He left his power-sharer on his desk and immediately felt—less. The deep, deep well of mana was gone, and he was full up, it was easy to recharge, but it was still nerve-racking not to have mana spilling over his fingertips after having it his whole life. He rubbed a hand over his wrist where goosebumps had broken out and went to find the Radiant Mind crystal El had given him. Traded him. It glowed faintly in his ragged bag, and he tucked it in his pocket, pressed against his leg, and felt a little better. 

He did not leave his shield belt, because, again, he wasn’t actually an idiot and it wasn’t really enclave property anyway, his dad had made it for him, specifically, so. It was different. 

No one asked him what he was doing or where he was going. He’d forgotten the names of almost everyone who came to pat him on the back, or thank him for killing mals inside, or whatever reason they had for wanting to come shake his hand. It wasn’t really about him, anyway, it was about their kids who were going in tonight or got out last year or something.

Chloe was waiting for him in by the 86th Street Door, a pair of fat sunglasses on her head and an outfit he didn’t recognize. She’d showered, her hair had those even waves that came exclusively from a can, and her dress was a bright just-off-the-hanger white that hadn’t been washed in a sink for a year. She waved when he came down the stairs. 

“What are you doing here?” he asked. 

“Your mom said we were going to the park,” Chloe said her smile sliding off, and Orion wanted to curse, because he didn’t need his mom to set up playdates anymore. He could set up his own—or not, which he preferred. 

He came to a stop in front of her. He could go to the park, if she wanted to—it would only be a few hours, and London was ahead of them, timezone wise, so he had time. He looked over at the stairs, which of course revealed nothing but did give him away, because in the last year Chloe had become his friend, in the way that the thirteen before that had never managed. 

“Orion,” she said warningly.

“What?” he put his hands in his pocket, rubbing his thumb over the crystal. “I didn’t do anything.”

The yet was a silent specter that floated between them for a long moment.

She looks at the staircase and back at him. “You think they’re just going to—put you on the Trans-Atlantic without asking questions?”

He hadn’t thought about the questions. “I’ll tell them I’m going to get a recruit.”

“Recruits come here,” she pointed out. “Not to mention—we already tried that.”

And they had, even Orion had offered, once, a month before graduation when El had almost gotten snagged by a small groggler because she hadn’t wanted to blow her rage crochet mana on it. If she’d just joined New York—their mana bank was huge, she wouldn’t have had to worry about it or Liu or Aadyha. It wasn’t like he was asking her to ditch her alliance or her friends, just—she always complained about Wales and New York was it’s perfect opposite. She’d love New York. They had the biggest library in the world outside of the Baghdad enclave. And they’d be close. It would be perfect.

She didn’t speak to him for the longest three days of his life. 

“I’m visiting a friend.”

“They’re not going to blow mana on a friend—“

“I have my own mana!” And he had a mana amplifier that El made him learn, just like the freeze spell he hadn’t wanted but apparently did need. He’d never used it, but it wasn’t hard. It rhymed like a Shel Silverstein poem, if Silverstein made you feel drunk on power.

She caught sight of his wrist, apprehension taking over her face. “Where’s your power-sharer.”

“It’s on my desk.”

“Orion,” she whispered.

“I didn’t want them coming after it.” His voice lowered to match hers, even though almost no one was around.

Chloe rubbed her fingers over her mouth and sucked in a hard breath. “You’re leaving.”

“I’m coming back.”

“Are you?” Her eyes were sharp. “El’s never going to live in an enclave, not one like New York, anyway. She made that very clear. You’re going to leave her out there on her own?”

No. “She can take care of herself.”

“Orion.”

“Just—“ he shook his head. He couldn’t put it into words, he wasn’t good with words, he was barely good with actions. 

“Okay.” She took a deep breath.

“Okay?”

“I owe you, and El is my friend too. Just—send a postcard, or something? When you guys set up?”

“We’re not—“ He couldn’t stop the blush clawing its way up his face. “I haven’t even asked her out yet!” 

Chloe laughed in his face. “You’ve been together for a year—the most stressful year you’ll ever have in your entire life. Dating, not dating, whatever you want to call it, you did everything together.”

“That’s not true.” She’d had Aadyha and Liu, and she hadn’t liked Magnus or the other New Yorkers, so they did—some things separately. He couldn’t really think of them right now, but they took different classes. Sometimes he ate with New York. He scrubbed a hand through his hair. 

“Alright,” she waved a hand, heading for the stairs. “Just, don’t say anything, okay? You’re a really bad liar.” 

The highway spat them out the other side, and Orion immediately leaned over. His breakfast was strongly considering making a reappearance. Chloe’s sandals appeared in front of him. “You don’t think he’s gonna get in trouble when my mom asks where we went?”

“Oh, he’s definitely going to get in trouble.”

“Chloe,” he said, jerking upright. 

“What did you think was going to happen?” she asked. She ran a hand over her hair, which had a static cling from the spell. “It’ll be fine. Your mom’s not going to fire him or anything, his dad is the head of the archives.” 

Orion still felt a half-heavy weight of guilt, because he did care that some guy was going to get in trouble but he didn’t care enough to not do it again.

“Orion?” The woman was familiar, their paths had definitely overlapped in the Scholomance, but he couldn’t put a name to the face. “Chloe? Oh my god, how are you? I’m glad you made it.”

“Sarah,” Chloe smiled, putting her sunglasses back on her head. “How’re things.” 

He didn’t remember Chloe being this nice to other enclavers when they were inside. 

“Boring,” she smiled. “It’s my week here in the dungeon. To be honest, I wasn’t really expecting anyone today. Everything okay?”

“I’m fine. I’m looking for El,” he said, taking a look around the London end of the highway. 

“She got out?”

Orion didn’t like her tone, but he didn’t want to waste his time. “Yeah.” 

“No, I just meant—she was a loner, you know?” They don’t usually make it didn’t need to be said. 

“She had an alliance.”

Chloe put a hand on his arm. “Orion’s going to Wales, somewhere, and I’m the accomplice. I’m not even here.” 

Something about his mood must have shown through, because Sarah just nodded and said, “Sure. Gwen Higgins is at the Radiant Mind Commune in Wales, El is probably with her. Do you know how to get there?”

He did not. He felt a blush infecting his face. “I figured I’d—get a cab?” 

“To Wales?”

Chloe made a noise like he’d wounded her. 

“I don’t—“ he shrugged, feeling dumb, but England was small, everyone said so, why couldn’t he take a cab? Sarah laughed at him, which was—kind of nice, actually. No one but El really did that. Even Chloe, who had a hand to her forehead in the clear what is wrong with you pose that had been a recent addition to their friendship, wasn’t laughing at him. 

“Come on,” Sarah said, waving them up the stairs, “I’ll write it down.” 

Chloe did not want to come to Wales, because quote, “These shoes are not meant for nature.” So she left him at the bus and went back to hang with the London crowd until someone in New York noticed they were gone. 

It was not an easy trip to Wales. It should have been, Susan or—Sarah—whoever, had put him on a bus and written out very specific instructions, like he was a toddler, which was offensive, but he got lost the moment he walked off the bus stop, so maybe she was right. He left the road, because there was a yoetlik slipping away through the underbrush, but after he killed it, and put out the small fire, he wasn’t sure which direction the road was anymore. 

He had never seen this many trees before in his life. He’d been to Central Park, of course, and they’d go to the ocean in the summer sometimes, when Dad could get away, but forests—not so much. His parents had never really had time to get away from the enclave for trips, but he imagined this was the sort of place people would go on them. 

He found a road eventually, and almost got himself run over looking the wrong way, but when he’d said, “I’m looking for Radiant Mind?” The woman driving had let him sit in the bed of her truck to the turn off, and pointed him in the right direction.

The walk was probably twice as long as the one from the cafeteria to shop class, but with no stairs and twice as nice too. There were birds chirping and a small breeze and the sun was almost thinking of maybe breaking through the clouds. 

El hadn’t talked about her mom a lot. It was one of those Police Line Do Not Cross boundaries that she had draped around her life outside the Scholomance, but Owen knew her by reputation. She was one of the greatest healers of the century, for all she was fairly small time. She didn’t run a client list or make house calls, which is what enclaves really wanted in their healers, so he’d never met her for all that she made small waves whenever someone came back from UK after a visit. 

So Orion was expecting someone like El, but more pleasant. Someone powerful, commanding, but maybe with a more reassuring presence and, he didn’t know, a bedside manner. El had a bedside manner that should be reserved for dead people—or maybe really bad maleficers who you want to feel impending doom hovering over them.

He was not expecting the barefoot and tired woman who opened when he knocked on the yurt’s supporting frame. Gwen Higgins looked mundane—slightly gray, soft, worn edges to a welcoming smile—until she saw him and her the shutters closed over everything pleasant. Then, he saw the resemblance. 

And El was there, over her mom’s shoulder, smiling halfway too laughing and he was laughing, relief flowing through him, happiness at his fingertips, better than mana. He had known she’d gotten through the gates, but she’d been over his shoulder and it had been so fast—he hadn’t known even though he’d been sure. Chloe was right, there was no way he was giving this up. 

El reached out and met him halfway, she was still taller than him, barely, and his chin fit perfectly against her shoulder. She smelled like soap and the smudging sage she’d always used in her cell or maybe that was just the yurt. He couldn’t keep the smile off his face. Even as she let go and muttered something Italian in is ear and he turned to see a small crawler freeze and crackle into ice inches from his ankle. 

She was the most beautiful person he’d ever met, even when she was smug. “Fourteen.” 

Then El stepped back, which was not great, and turned away—to her mom, who he’d forgotten was standing there. “Mom, this is Orion Lake. Orion, Gwen Higgins.”

“It’s nice to meet you, ma’am,” he went to shake her hand, but it took her a minute to catch up. She looked—displeased, maybe, but that wasn’t really the right word. His mother looked displeased, often, Gwen Higgins had a maybe next time sort of optimism to the expression. 

“Call me Gwen, dear,” she didn’t let go of his hand, “you have a remarkably pure aura, did you know that?”

“Where’s your power-sharer?” El asked, looking at his wrist.

He ignored El turning his wrist over, because he wasn’t dumb enough to snub her mother. “Thank you, uh, I did not.”

“I’ll do a reading for you, later.” She was smiling again, but it sounded like some sort of threat.

“I don’t think so,” El said and began walking away with Orion’s hand.

“I—Sure, yes alright.” He had to succumb to El’s pulling or lose his arm. “It was nice to meet you. How are you so rude?”

“I’m sorry, did you want to sit through a two hour reading and meditation cleanse with my mother?”

“I want your mother to like me.”

“My mother likes everyone,” El said, before her brows snapped together in the way they did reading her Golden Sutras, like something shouldn’t be possible with just what was written before her but was nevertheless true. 

He interrupted her thoughts before she left him basically walking the path alone. “So, this is where you live now?”

“Oh,” she looked around at the yurts and the dewy grass, grimacing, “no. I can’t stay.”

I can’t stay, not that she didn’t want to stay. 

“So, where are you going to live now?” he prodded. He wanted to kick himself for not phrasing it better, but their really was no subtle jump from “go out with me” to “let’s live together.” Though, wait, dammit, he hadn’t actually done the first part yet. 

El turned her head towards him, dusk slowly robbing her of color. “Weren’t you going to ask me something, Lake?” 

“Didn’t I?”

She smiled for a moment. “I don’t know I just got here. I figure—I have a week, probably, before they start making noise to urge me on. Of course, I didn’t picture you arriving the day we graduated.” 

“When did you picture me arriving?”

“I thought—I could build something,” she said, ignoring the question. “In the woods or, in a mountain. Go the full woodland sorceress route.”

“Lure some children, lay some curses.”

“It’s a classic for a reason.” She was smiling again, and it was like his face had to mirror hers, or maybe his had never really gone away. They were fully in the trees now, and the air was cool and wet and everything was so alive in a way he hadn’t realized he desperately missed inside.

“Christ,” he said, looking at a tree for help. It was not. “I didn’t think this was going to be awkward.”

“Everything you do is awkward.”

“Wow, great, thanks a lot,” he laughed. “You know I have been told that I have hermit potential.”

“Have you?”

He brushed her hair, still short, still not entirely long enough to rest behind her ear. “I’m unsociable, apparently.”

“A key quality in a hermit.” Her smile was wry, and they were closer before. He felt her fingers snagging on the loops of his jeans, lightly pulling him forward. 

“I could do the woodland thing too,” he whispered. 

Kissing El was the exact opposite of what it was last time, and it was twice as good. It was soft, and unhurried, and they are surrounded by the peace of the trees and the buzzing of cicadas and not an incoming wall of burning death. Her fingers were cool on the back of his neck, thrilling where they gripped his shirt. She tasted like the honey she had to so carefully ration into her tea, and it was that more than anything that grounded him into this forest and this moment. He couldn’t stop the secret smile from curving against her cheek as she pressed their foreheads together.

This was the feeling he’d crossed an ocean for, settling easily beneath his heart, safe behind his ribs. It was the shared maintenance shifts and the quiet table in the library and the food that made it onto his sacrificed breakfast tray. 

“El,” he murmurs.

“Hm.”

“Will you go out with me?” he asks, and it feels like even the cicadas quiet down to listen in. 

Her soft, “Yes,” is mostly shared between their lips.

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first fic, ever! i've been reading fic for years but i've never been clever enough to write anything before, so, thank you for making it to the end :) i hope you enjoyed it! 
> 
> i would greatly appreciate your comments and kudos, because i thrive on attention.


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